Primary Sources, Endnotes, Ellipses...

My research skills aren't very impressive. My emphasis for a long time has been on ascertaining as full and comprehensive an understanding of mainstream interpretations of historical events, persons, and periods as contained in books. I'd read a book, take fairly extensive notes, and write about what I'd read.

I found this by far the most effective means of mastering the material I'm interested in. But it has meant that I have not been developing research skills. Which explains why the Senda Berenson paper I wrote for class was a huge learning experience. Some things I learned:

Understand your sources. I went to the library, typed Senda Berenson into a database and printed the first ten or twelve articles. I read them, highlighted important information and wrote my paper. When I went to cite my sources I realized I couldn't figure out what half of them were. Several were apparently drawn from websites but I didn't have the URL for a proper citation. One of my sources was so poorly written--it cited a page number to book whose title it neglected to provide the reader--that I really should not have used it.
Use primary source material. I made a point to work as fast as I could because I knew getting bogged down in various details, or becoming frustrated with various aspects of the research, would easily facilitate procrastination. That's my excuse for why it didn't even occur to me to look for some primary source material.
Don't neglect the obvious. Senda Berenson was an instructor at Smith College in Amherst, Massachusetts. When I met with Professor Fischer to discuss ways of improving my paper she handed me some material she had printed off a digitized online archive of Senda Berenson's materials through the Smith College website. Never crossed my mind.

Some small things were also learned: the difference in format for a citation in an endnote versus a bibliography; when to use ellipses; when to use "ibid."

I still feel that I have huge gaps in my knowledge of history and that I need to be filling those in. And I feel that reading books and writing about what I've read is the most effective means by which to accomplish that. I do wish to develop research skills however. I feel like the paper on Senda Berenson, the first research paper I've written in years, marks the starting point in developing those skills. Hopefully in writing additional papers for the course I can reinforce the lessons learned.